<p>Fauster, my son also applied to RPI after he and my husband did a visit to determine if it was more of a “no” but instead it turned out to be a “yes”. </p>
<p>But he liked Univ of Rochester and also applied there.</p>
<p>I’m with you bopambo, with so many “no’s” where did Lostcoast daughter apply?</p>
<p>I didn’t mention the places she liked, because of the topic. But what the heck, we’re 191 pages into it.</p>
<p>She ended up applying to three UC’s (Davis, San Diego, and Santa Cruz), Scripps, Pomona, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, and Puget Sound.</p>
<p>And to think, when she started she had no intention of applying to all-women’s colleges!</p>
<p>Actually, from my original list, I forgot Brandeis. She liked the atmosphere, but it just didn’t feel special enough to go across the country to attend.</p>
<p>LostCoast, did she visit Wellesley? (My daughter attends, so I am interested…)</p>
<p>Fauster, we didn’t see RPI until accepted student’s weekend. It was much nicer than I had expected and I really liked the students we talked to. We have friends whose kids have both gone there. The oldest didn’t love it, but she did extremely well, graduated early and is now in grad school at Cornell the school that turned her down when she was an undergrad. Son is still there and seems happy - I think it’s a better fit for him.</p>
<p>Mathmom, why did you daughter turn down Cornell for undergrad for RPI?</p>
<p>Lakemom, Mathmom said that Cornell turned down her daughter for undergrad, but her daughter is now at Cornell for grad school.</p>
<p>Mathmom was talking about the 2 kids of friends of hers,not her own kids. I believe Mathmom has sons?</p>
<p>D1s first eliminations were based on where she could play soccer (Div2 and Div3). But Texas A&M earned an early dismissal due to the size of the school. REALLY narrowed her search, from that point on, since her focus will be Engineering.</p>
<p>UT-Dallas - Academic fit, inexpensive but “looks like a high school campus, Dad. No one lives on campus”</p>
<p>TX Lutheran - Too small, and only a 3-2 Engineering path.</p>
<p>OK Central - see UT-Dallas</p>
<p>Lamar University - “It’s in Beaumont, TX”</p>
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<p>No, and I can’t remember for sure why not. I think it may have been their major offerings, which didn’t jibe as well with her interests as those at the Five Colleges. The main target of our east coast trip was actually Brown, which was top of her list going in, but fell completely off after the visit.</p>
<p>Wellesley certainly sounds like a great school. I’d hesitate to push her to send in another application, though–she’s completely sick of essays!</p>
<p>Duke was absolutely beautiful with its private park-like campus. The tour guide was good if a little dull and said students “study all the time, even Friday nights”, nobody leaves campus much because not much to see/do in “dirty Durham”, and her answer to what do you do for fun was “we take the free bus to UNC and party on Franklin Street”. Also, did not like their dining hall at all…dim, dark, and not somewhere you want to hang out or go to get food. </p>
<p>Loved UNC. Beautiful campus, guide was a senior and absolutely in love with UNC and the first year student program, enjoyed seeing the interaction of students in the bright vibrant dining halls, professors conducting class on the greens, and Franklin street was small but a hit with our group. Mediteranean food and boutique shopping with Southern hospitality. </p>
<p>Wake Forest on a beautiful fall Thursday afternoon. Very impressive welcome speech and campus facility. But, once outside touring we noticed not one person enjoying the green grassy quad. The 3 people we asked what they would change about WF all answered the “work load”. One girl was so cute but, commented that she wished she could “enjoy life more” but, could not because of her work load. Very quiet everywhere we went, even though lots of students were going to and from classes.Guide said he like Wake but, we felt he was holding something back. Seemed too small and not much going on.</p>
<p>I was dismayed with how weather can really affect a teen’s perception of a school and how influential a good (or bad) tour guide can be to a teen. Our best tour and guide was the favorite school. Makes me want to go back on a rainy cold day and hope for a dull guide to make sure the child still likes it all. <em>laugh</em></p>
<p>Optimistic-- how did you like Winston-Salem? D is considering UNCSA which is on the other side of town from Wake…but, we’ve never been to the town. I’d love to know your sense of it.</p>
<p>Optimistic thanks! Back in the 80’s my stepsister and I visited Duke and UNC. I was looking at Duke, she at UNC, so we toured them together. </p>
<p>Our UNC guide spent almost the entire tour telling us about the lottery to get basketball tickets. We never saw the inside of a library or classroom or dorm. I came away hating the place. Neither of us applied to either one, me not because I didn’t like Duke but just because I decided it was too far from NYC. I think the b-ball obsession killed UNC for my sister (who actually played b-ball herself but COME ON).</p>
<p>Who you get as a tour guide can make SUCH a difference.</p>
<p>The college search was a joy for our family. The four of us were together and visiting some beautiful parts of the country, places we’d never have seen, unless we were looking at colleges.
The first college we visited in our search was Hampshire. Gorgeous campus, but not for my daughter. The co-ed bathrooms scared her off, I think. We heard a young woman at Hampshire talk about her thesis project, one of the lesser known Greek tragedies that she’d researched and performed. Almost brought tears to my eyes, she was such an inspirational young woman.
I can’t remember why, but we also crossed beautiful Kenyon off our list.
We visited Wake, where my wife attended college. We had a long conversation with her scholarship advisor from years ago [she’s still teaching there]. She thought that Wake was becoming a little too conservative, and actually recommended we look elsewhere.
To put things in some context, we all loved Bowdoin and Williams.
The only school we all universally hated was Wellesley. It left us absolutely cold. The campus is a stunning garden, and it’s an exceptional school. However, our info session was underwhelming and our tour guide was simply awful [never even introduced herself, clearly wanted to be in bed]. We practically ran to our car.</p>
<p>I’m not a parent, but I felt like I should share my opinions. Im a junior and so far i’ve visited 10 or so schools in the last year and a half and these are the ones i crossed off my list:</p>
<p>-Penn State (My first college visit) - Too big and impersonal. I didn’t know if i’d be able to handle such a big school and it turns out, it’s not for me. It is very spread out and I feel that it’s very easy to get lost in the shuffle of things. I also don’t like the two+two program. (I know it’s not mandatory) It was also just a gut feeling of mine that I could find other schools I liked better.</p>
<p>-Dickinson - Not very diverse. I checked it off because I felt as if the school wasn’t in the twenty-first century enough. This one was mostly gut feeling that I wasn’t going to like the school if I attended. I did love the information session though. The man who gave it was absolutely fantastic</p>
<p>I agree with you about Penn State. I did not visit but my husband and son did and they found it to be the same. They were also bothered that the school pushed the clubs and sports and were less able to say what made them different/special as a school.</p>
<p>Love your list, LostCoast - we are also NWsterners.<br>
Lewis and Clark: visited on boiling hot day when shade seemed nice but . . . D smartly noted that most of the year it would be raining and the lovely shade trees would feel dank and mossy and closing in. View of Mt. Hood on printed materials can only be seen from roof of admissions office which, by the way, was the donated mansion of a department store founder. It gives the initial impression of east coast prep - even the ladies in the office were dressed in knee length A-line skirt and cardigans (think Sylvia Plath at 50). However, the rest of campus is a strange mish-mash of not that nice buildings. D noted that if she was going to essentially live in the science building for 4 years it had better not be a dark basement.
Gustavus Adolphus: ditto on the uninspiring science buildings. D’s HS has nicer facilities. Poor school was leveled by a tornado and rebuilt in the model of the air force academy. They have about 1 tree and 1 old building on campus. Mailing photos must have been taken from a cherry picker to get both the tree and old main in the same shot. Not a very collegiate, academic feel. Every kid in the admissions office had HS letter jacket. Nice people, though.
Carleton: Buildings reminded her too much of husband’s small town high school - lots of red brick. No real student union/commons or other place to gather in cold climate.
Duke: Durham, humidity
Seattle University: too urban, campus merges in to city rather than defined
USF: ditto urban campus merging into city
UPS: too close to home</p>
<p>Although DS was not a big fan of the idea of a large university I him apply to IU, where I began my college life. he was auto admit to Honors college adn auto merit aid. Once accepted, he went to visit, though my stories of college days did not make it appealing to him. Onan overnight, he experienced every negative that he had in his mind- too many drunken students (on a Wednesday night) on an Honors floor, too much bragging about how easy it was to maintain a good GPA with no work, huge classes and lab session with TA that hadn’t mastered the English language, and even an exchange that highlighted the animosity between East Coast/Midwest kids. His host was actually a friend from hs, and agreed that Indiana is not a place that he would like. If finances don’t work, his instate public choice will be the much more mellow IUPUI. </p>
<p>I continue to love the school, and rememer my time there fondly.</p>
<p>^Aww. That’s kind of a sad story!</p>
<p>“Sylvia Plath at 50” Snork. Agree completely. My daughter did not like Lewis and Clark at all, while her dad and I were ready to apply then and there. She did not see one pair of cute shoes all day and I fear that had an impact, lol. </p>
<p>Crossed off Pitzer after visit (even with the resort-like dorms and pool) for a vague reason that I shared even though I was just as vague. </p>
<p>UWashington too big. </p>
<p>UofO too close to home. </p>
<p>Our daughter loved Univ San Diego (who wouldn’t? It’s San Diego!!), Santa Clara, Puget Sound and Gonzaga. Wouldn’t even consider urban campuses after seeing Univ Seattle and Univ San Francisco.</p>
<p>One of our friends’ daughters crossed a school off because she saw too many guys with monobrows. Jeezo Pete.</p>
<p>University of Chicago- fell in love with it. Amazing architecture. I literally felt happy walking to class everyday because it was so beautiful (did a summer course). Food was okay, dorms were not strict and had fun areas with ping-pong tables, pianos, pool tables. Surrounding areas not great. Kind of in the ghetto, lots of crime, but UChicago has GREAT security/campus PD. </p>
<p>Johns Hopkins- not my preference of architecture. Brick buildings and hills (workout to get to class) (did a summer program) food was incredible! Dorms were very strict, floors separated by gender and there were quiet hours (people got upset if you were loud at 9:00pm) surrounding area wasn’t great either. If you walk a bit off campus you’re in the ghetto. </p>
<p>University of Miami- its okay. Can’t say I’ve done a tour of the campus, however, my sister attends the university so I stayed in her apartment and went to a frat party. Great vibe, free drinks, everyone was very friendly! Even the ultimate nerds were doing keg stands. Incredibly hot guys and girls. Lots of hooking up. But one thing to note is that the majority of the students are very wealthy driving Mercedes and BMWs. Most are down to earth about it though. </p>
<p>Anyone visited Syracuse? I’d love to know how it is!</p>